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December 14, 2008
WHERE CAN I BUY THE 'ARTS GIFT CARD'?
Hello everyone.
"And the beat goes on....................."
GIVE THE ARTS GIFT CARD FOR CHRISTMAS
For years now, Gift Cards have been increasingly popular - not just during the holdiays, but all year long. It's a simple, easy and convenient choice for the giver, and allows the recipient some control over what the end gift actually turns out to be. Everybody likes them. They have been a godsend to the merchants because, first, they increase their sales & thus income, and two, a surprisingly large percentage of the cards are never used and thus the merchant gets the income at virtually no cost. I am guessing the cost of the program is minimal. They've become widely popular and you see huge displays featuring a vast choice of cards in almost every supermarket.
This year there have been a few warnings to be careful which cards you give, because you don't want to give a gift card to a merchant that might file bankruptcy or something, but I doubt that will have but a minor impact on sales, and certainly little on cards like American Express or Visa that are good wherever their cards are welcome.
So tell, me why isn't there a regional ARTS GIFT CARD for sale? One that is redeemable at any one of scores of museums, theater groups, symphonies, dance companies etc. Simple concept, you get a bunch of arts organizations to participate, all of them include some tag line in their advertising (e.g., GIVE THE GIFT OF THE ARTS CARD) and tout the card all year long on their websites, in their newsletters etc. Every participating organization sells them, and they're sold along side all the others at supermarkets etc. You get some media coverage about the great experience of the arts and what a "meaningful" gift it is. You tell grandparents to give "the unique, life enhancing experience" of the gift of the arts to their grandchildren, and so on and so on.
It would seem a natural to advertise giving people a choice of arts experiences as a gift (i.e., museums, theater, dance, music, multicultural, etc. etc.)- and one could easily imagine targeting specific constituent groups -- young people, older people, various ethic communities, etc. Wouldn't that be good for our struggling organizations? Not only an increase in income, but perhaps new people exposed to local art. The Arts Gift Card would likewise have the appeal of being welcome at a choice of places.
Yes, yes, I know. Somebody has to organize all this and it takes time that no one has, but aren't there companies already in existence who manage a lot of the commercial cards that are out there? And if no such companies exist to which we might turn, how about a simple pilot project in one region funded by a foundation to see if it works - and if it does, roll it out nationally. (I really think this is the kind of thing that ought to be on the NEA's agenda somewhere). There are accounting challenges to this concept - how to pay each arts organization when the card is redeemed for their offering, but that's certainly do-able. And obviously there is a mark-up for the supermarket or other retailer who sells these cards, and maybe a point or two to the organizing companies, but the economics make sense or no one would do this. Believe me if there is money to be made here,(and I am pretty sure there is), then I guarantee you someone will be willing to do this. And with empty seats for most performances, what would the arts have to lose anyway?
Don't many, if not most, performing or exhibition arts organizations sell their own Gift Certificates already? Maybe there is already an Arts Gift Card program (or something similar) out there (though not where I live, not conveniently available at my supermarket anyway -- and that's the whole point: widely, conveniently available everywhere). If there is such a program, does it work? Could we replicate it around the country? Why aren't we? I just think the Arts have to be as smart as retail merchants and leave no stone unturned in our attempt to market our goods & services -- especially in this lousy economy.
I've given people Gift Cards, and frankly had there been an Arts Gift Card, I would have given that as my first choice. I'll bet there are a million people out there who would feel the same. Hell, if lots of arts organizations participated, there are easily a million of us in the arts who would give these cards as gifts. And any additional income, any new bodies in seats would be welcome.
The economy is going to get worse. Things are already bad for a lot of arts organizations and that is likely to continue. We really still aren't marketing our product as smart and aggressively as we must.
I would like to give people an ARTS GIFT CARD next year - even before Christmas - like for their birthdays, or anniversaries, or graduation. I'd like to buy these cards at my local supermarket.
Just a thought.
Have a great week as the holidays ramp up.
Don't Quit.
Barry
Posted by BarryH at December 14, 2008 11:01 AM
Comments
Hey Barry,
It's a great idea, and there are plenty of people that agree -- it's popped up in conversations for years. But the huge obstacle for an actual physical gift card is at both the point of sale and the point of redemption: different ticketing systems. There are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of different ticketing systems used by arts and cultural groups across the country. And making one card work with many systems would be a very difficult process. Best Buy or Circuit City has it easy -- all stores use the same cash register/card system, so their cards work at all like-branded stores. But you couldn't take a Best Buy card to Circuit City for example. For the arts community, I see too possibilities. One, everybody agrees to get on board with one ticketing system that does everything, or that at least just creates a standard for how gift cards can connect with that main system. If everybody uses the same system, or connects to the same system, it would work. The other is to go with an existing global network: Visa or Mastercard. A Visa or Mastercard giftcard would work at any arts or cultural venue that took credit cards (but the downside is that same card would work at any retailer -- it would not be just restricted for use with arts and cultural groups). Finally, you could do it with paper (how retro!) as an actual gift certificate can be universal to as many people who want to participate. My hope is that just as there are several movements in technology to unify efforts and not reinvent the wheel, (opensource software projects for example) there will be the same effort in ticketing, and a shared standard for accepting gift cards can be created.
Posted by: Ron Evans at December 14, 2008 01:55 PM
Dear Barry... Great idea!!! You are such a consistent source of productively good thoughts - actions and vision for the Arts. So especially important in this currently sad "victim" society that has been formed by governmental "plunder". Without Art life in this world is no longer viable for sentient humans. Thank you - you bring hope for the future. Ruth
Posted by: Ruth at December 14, 2008 04:13 PM
Good idea!
Posted by: Jayne Lyn Stahl at December 14, 2008 06:14 PM
Thanks Ron. We should explore what we would have to do to meet whatever challenges exist so we could participate in such a system. I think the first step would be to do a survey in a couple of regions -urban / big city, and suburban / rural to find out how many different systems arts organizations were using, and see if there was one that was dominant. If there were, perhaps we could go with that one, and arts organizations could switch over to it over time. In any event, we need the data to decide how to move. As the old adage goes: "Where there is a will, there is a way."
Posted by: barry at December 15, 2008 09:49 AM
Barry,
Here in New Jersey we already offer a "universal gift card" for nonprofit cultural groups that want to take part -- currently there are 45 theaters, museums, arts centers, etc that honor the gift card. It’s done in conjunction with other statewide arts marketing programs we coordinate under the Discover Jersey Arts brand.
Rather than point-of-purchase sales (which would greatly increase the program’s cost, complicate inventory issues and detract some groups from participating since they would rather sell their own gift cards on site), we sell ours entirely online. We do ask that the participating arts organizations include the occasional marketing blurb in emails and/or post a web tile pointing to the web page, but overall it is not too terribly cumbersome or overly expensive to manage. The key is to keep it simple.
So far we have not had any luck getting them placed in supermarkets, etc -- mostly because we are a regional (NJ only) not national product. Still, it does produce sales for our local arts community (especially this time of year).
You can check it out here if you like:
http://www.jerseyarts.com/GiftCard.asp
Posted by: Jim at December 15, 2008 12:33 PM
Thank you Jim. First, every area of the country should think about replicating what you are doing with this program in New Jersey. Second, we should figure out how we could expand your program to roll out nationally. Third, we should figure out what it would take to insure the supermarkets & other mass outlet retailers would carry the card. I think this last element is important because the purchase of a gift card is, I suspect, often times, if not a true impulse buy, at least not the reason to visit the store in the first place. It's probably more of a "oh, I'll get a gift card for Dick & Jane when I go to the market tomorrow." It's all about convenience and the card being offered everywhere. Thus if we have only online sales we will likely lose a percentage of sales we might otherwise get.
I think long term this could be a meaningful source of income for a lot of organizations. I hope some national service provider or other umbrella type regional or state organization might, with foundation support, pursue this.
Posted by: barry at December 15, 2008 01:01 PM
This is a fantastic idea, Barry.
Here's a thought to ponder: there are gift card to any store located within a particular mall ... at least that's how I believe the master gift card to the Galleria at Roseville works. Does anyone know how these seperate stores all work together? They can't be all networked together like multiple stores of the same chain. Maybe they are using PayPal or a PayPal-like system to do this?
And speaking of ... COULD PayPal be used in this way, for a group of arts organizations?
Posted by: Mary Beth Barber at December 16, 2008 04:03 PM
FYI ... interesting article about a Charity Gift Card in today's Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/18/AR2008121803617.html?hpid=topnews
Posted by: Ben Davidson at December 19, 2008 06:00 AM
Thank you for the link Ben. IF the arts community wanted to pursue the Gift Card option, it would seem it would be entirely possible. I hope some organization positioned to move forward on this on behalf of the field will do so.
Posted by: barry at December 19, 2008 09:32 AM
Jim, I'm curious about how the Jersey Arts gift cards are marketed, besides the occasional stuff you mentioned, and stocking them at local stores. Does the marketing extend to the recipients? Stores and credit card companies that offer gift cards profit even more when gift cards go unused, as Barry has pointed out, but in the nonprofit arts sector, we would want to promote the cards' use as much as possible, yes?
Barry, great topic, thanks for starting the discussion!
Posted by: Maryann Devine at December 22, 2008 09:29 AM